Stuart Maloney provisional Rally Club Champion Driver

 Stuart Maloney is the Barbados Rally Club’s (BRC) Champion Driver elect, after winning Sunday’s (November 17) BRC Winter Rally at the wheel of his Skoda Fabia RS Rally2 with co-driver Kristian Yearwood. Fought out on a day of challenging weather and tricky road conditions in St John, the eighth and final round of the 2024 BRC Driver’s and Class Championships provided an action-packed climax to the season.
  Overnight showers had already dampened the stages and created areas of standing water when the rains started again around 10.00am as crews assembled in the Service Park at Colleton Factory Yard. Nine three-kilometre stages were scheduled at two venues, Malvern to Wilson Hill and Stewart’s Hill to Society, with fans assembling early in their favourite spots such as Malvern Corner and the Easy Hall hairpin, umbrellas at the ready; they were rewarded with some skillful car control and entertaining driving.
  Before the start, many thought tyre choice would be crucial, but it soon became clear that wet-weather rubber was the order of the day. Maloney was fastest on every stage, winning by a margin of 36.42secs and claiming his seventh FIA R5 class victory of the season. Second, in only his fourth rally, was Adam Mallalieu, guided in his Ford Fiesta R5 by experienced British co-driver Steve McNulty, with the Jamaican crew of Kyle Gregg and Mike Fennell Jnr (Fiesta Rally2) third, another 7.6secs behind.
  At the finish, Maloney said: “The rally ran well and was enjoyable. It was consistently wet, so there was no uncertainty about the road or tyre choice, so we kept wets on all day. I don't race for the accolades or record books, I do this because I enjoy the competition, win, lose or draw. The championship is just icing on the cake.”
  Maloney is also provisional 4wd Champion, repeating his double of 2021, while the 2wd title is heading Rhett Watson’s way for the third time after he finished 10th overall with Andrew Croney in his BMW M3, also winning SuperModified 2, beating the M3 Compact of Mark Kinch and Seth Prescod by just under 4secs. Watson said: “Today's approach was about securing the 2wd Championship, and it all came together. Mark is much more confident in the wet and had nothing to lose but I just needed to finish.”
  Andrew Jones and Lindsey Pilkington (Ford Escort MkII) finished 13th overall and third in SM2, the class having lost another strong bet for victory early on. Back after a long wait for his Fiesta’s new engine, Barry Mayers suffered a small problem with the fly by wire system, which left him last after the first Malvern to Wilson Hill stage. With co-driver Ben Norris, he stopped after the stage to recalibrate it, during which a truck ran through nearby standing water, soaked his car and drowned the engine.
  While Maloney edged away from the field, no fewer than five of the R5 class opposition set second-fastest times. Initially, Jamaica’s Gregg was his closest challenger, until an overshoot on the second Stewart’s Hill stage cost him around 15secs, as he couldn’t spin the car quickly because of a faulty handbrake. That handed second place to Mallalieu, who held the position at lunchtime, despite losing time to a broken driveshaft on the last stage of the morning, making his Fiesta a rare 2wd R5.
  During the lunch break, the organising team had some quick thinking to do. An incident involving Daryl Clarke’s Suzuki Swift RS had rendered the Stewart’s Hill stage unuseable for the rest of the day, an extra run of the reversed Wilson Hill to Malvern replacing it. That stage had also claimed the Fiesta Rally2 of America’s George Sherman and the BMW M3 of Wayne Archer.
  After a couple of exploratory stages to gain confidence on their new wet rubber, Roger Hill and Graham Gittens had been creeping up the order in their Fabia R5. Second fastest to Maloney on the first Wilson Hill after lunch, Hill dislodged Mallalieu from second place and looked set for one of his best results of the season, before aquaplaning off on the second run through. He was unable to make it back to the tarmac.
  Having been down on power with turbo issues in the morning, Josh Read and Mark Jordan also made an afternoon comeback, fastest on the penultimate stage of the day, to finish fourth. Modified 4 winners Mark Thompson and Ron Greaves (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX) were fifth, with the top six completed by Britain’s Rob Swann (Fabia Rally2), co-driven by Bajan Geoff Goddard, in the absence of his regular driver Andrew Mallalieu.
  Closest challenger to Maloney in the Champion Driver title chase ahead of Sunday was Clubman 2 leader Chris Hoad (BimmaCup), who had lost a tie-break to Maloney in 2021. While it would have taken a poor result for Maloney for Hoad to prevail this year, he had troubles of his own, with a burst brake line and a very determined opponent in Ryan Wood, who beat him to the class win by 34secs. That left Hoad tied with Watson for second place, Hoad getting the nod this time once his dropped score was added back in.
  Two further class titles were settled in style: Neil Corbin finished 12th overall and an impressive third in 2wd to claim Modified 2 in his Toyota GT86 CS-R3, while two places behind him at the finish, Jonathan Still (BMW M3) took the M3 class title.

2024 BRC Driver’s & Class Championships, round 8
BRC Winter Rally - Sunday, November 17
Results:

1st Stuart Maloney/Kristian Yearwood (FIA R5 Rock Hard Cement/M-Jet/Bushy Park Barbados/Sign Station Skoda Fabia RS Rally2), 13m 50.59s
2nd Adam Mallalieu/Steve McNulty - ENG (FIA R5 Terra Caribbean Ford Fiesta R5), + 36.42s
3rd Kyle Gregg – JAM/Mike Fennell Jnr - JAM (FIA R5 York Investments/B D Gregg Ford Fiesta Rally2), + 44.04s
4th Josh Read/Mark Jordan (FIA R5 Automotive Art/Weetabix Ford Fiesta R5), +47.79s
5th Mark Thompson/Ron Greaves (M4 Glassesco Hardware/Automotive Art/Valvoline/NKM Clothing/Bio-Beauty Day Spa/Realtors Ltd Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), + 52.53s
6th Rob Swann – ENG/Geoff Goddard (FIA R5 Cygnet Plant Ltd Export and Sales/R A Swann Ltd Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 58.66s
7th Logan Watson/Barry Ward (FIA R5 Cargo BGI/Packaging Centre Ltd/Pressure On/Shell Lubricants/Jack Daniels/Bajan Pure Water/Luxe Caribbean Properties Inc/Boot Camp Central/Hankook/Stihl/C3 Communications/Colour XL Skoda Fabia Rally2 evo), + 1:10.49
8th Paul Horton - TCI/Leslie Evanson (F) (FIA R5 Java Island/HO2 Construction/Edge Development/Sky Motorsports Citroen C3 Rally2), + 1:11.18
9th Kurt Thompson/Adam Straker (M4 Glassesco Hardware/Automotive Art/Valvoline/NKM Clothing/Bio-Beauty Day Spa/Realtors Ltd Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX), + 1:43.09
10th Rhett Watson/Andrew Croney (SM2 Chefette/Frosteez/Finlandia Vodka/Stihl/Gliptone/Bajan Pure Water/Motul Oils/Hankook BMW M3), + 1:57.66
etc

FIA R5: 1st Maloney/Yearwood; 2nd Mallalieu/McNulty – ENG; 3rd Gregg – JAM/Fennell Jnr – JAM; etc
Modified 4: 1st M Thompson/Greaves, 14:43.02; 2nd K Thompson/Straker, + 50.56s
SuperModified 2: 1st R Watson/Croney, 15:48.15; 2nd Mark Kinch/Seth Prescod (Express Motors/Bajan Rum Cakes/Servall Inc/Sign Up BMW Compact), + 03.88s; 3rd Andrew Jones/Lindsey Pilkington (F) - ENG (Southern Surf Beach Apartments/Gale’s Agro Products/Go On Energy Bars/Weetabix/Tunnock’s/Hankook Ford Escort MkII), + 42.08s; etc
SM1: no finishers
M3: 1st Jonathan Still/Heath Hazell (Suga Apple Swim/InoGro-Hydroponics/Weddings by Melissa/New York Pizza/Bajan Pure Water/Young Island/Quality Tyre BMW M3), 17:01.68 – 14th overall; 2nd Stuart Garcia/Rasheed Smith (Time Out Car Rentals/Smith’s Engineering Works/Kirba Inc/Four & Twenty Bakery/Quality Tyre/Forin BMW Compact), + 1:39.94
M2: 1st Neil Corbin/Matthew Staffner (Nassco Limited/Stamina Energy/Colour XL/Auto Solutions/Pressout Performance Toyota GT86 CS-R3), 16:19.58 – 12th o/a; 2nd Sean Corbin/Moishe Steinbok (Super-S Premium Lubricants/Carters Pitstop/Kikks Slippas/Westlake Tires/First Step Security/Guava Tech/Gunk/Fabblast Barbados/M&M Tuning BMW 318ti Compact), + 58.96s
H2: Harold Morley/Mutamuliza Cutting (F) (Spectrum Antimicrobials Inc Porsche 911RS), 20:27.12 – 28th o/a
Clubman 2: 1st Robert Ryan Wood/Tristan Mapp (Carters Pitstop/Power King/Caribbean LED Lighting/Hilti Tools/CA Autobody Repairs/Westlake/Sitemasters Construction/SB Tuning BimmaCup), 17:17.67 – 15th o/a; 2nd Chris Hoad/Allan Alkins (Subway/Dasani Water/Color XL/Shell Lubricants/Guava Tech BimmaCup), + 34.23s; 3rd Russell Smith - ENG/Dwayne Forde (Kirba Inc BimmaCup), + 38.65s; etc
C1: 1st Jason Tull/Joseph Tseu (Jay-T’s/BG Prod/Warmstyle Developments Peugeot 106 Rallye S2), 18:57.67 – 26th o/a; 2nd Shawn Brathwaite/Johnathan King (Executive Air/Homeomart Barbados Toyota Corolla), + 51.23s; 3rd Kyle Gill/Aliya Trotman (F) (Expressionism/Adhoc Industries/Chicken Stop Barbados Mitsubishi Mirage RS Clone), + 1:38.24
Group B: 1st Mark Huggins/Kyle Ifill (General Distributors Daihatsu Charmant), 17:33.19; 2nd Chadane Holder/Shaquille Mayers (Carnique Transport Inc/Seven Creative Media/City of Bridgetown Credit Union Toyota Starlet), + 16.39s; 3rd Anderson Roachford/Rico Maynard (Toyota Starlet), + 4:21.77

For media information only. No regulatory value.

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Web site: www.barbadosrallyclub.com